February 27, 2013
WEDNESDAY
MĂśtley CrĂźe To Rock Estevan
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SaskPower has announced they have begun refurbishing Unit 3 at the Boundary Dam Power Station to prepare it for integration with the carbon sequestration plant.
CCS project takes another step forward It’s not quite the home stretch, but the carbon capture and sequestration project at the Boundary Dam Power Station has taken another step towards the finish line. SaskPower announced last week that Unit 3 at Boundary Dam, which is the unit being transformed for carbon capture, was taken off-line Monday as part of the ongoing work. Through a press release, it was noted that SaskPower
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September. “It’s (the part of the project) that we need to do quickly. Just like the other shutdowns we like to get at it and get it done,� he said. “There is going to have to be other generation that takes over where Unit 3 normally is. We have other stuff available to back feed, but the stuff in Estevan is our low cost generators of electricity so we don’t like to have them off for long.� Although shutdowns at
Boundary Dam are nothing new, Bruce said because of the carbon capture unit, this shutdown has some different elements to it. For starters, the cost is much higher, coming in at $364 million. “It’s probably bigger than any shutdown we have ever done in the Estevan area,� Bruce said. “It’s rivalled only by when Shand was built which obviously was much bigger than this. “Normally we come down and we take apart
the turbines and do maintenance on them and we go into the boiler and replace the boiler. There are things like that except the turbine generator is going to be brand new, we have to change a whole bunch of equipment that is past its life and needs to be changed so it works with the carbon capture plant and we are doing very expensive upgrades and a refitting of the boiler.� Testing ⇢ A2
Potholes already a problem in Estevan Pothole season has come early for the City of Estevan. While they usually have a reprieve until the spring, the wild temperature swings the area has experienced this winter have caused havoc on local streets and exposed the sorry shape that many of them are in. City manager Jim Puffalt said they are doing what they can to deal with the situation, but added the weather has been a major factor as the roads have gone through a number of freezing and thawing cycles which is especially tough on asphalt. “I don’t recall when we’ve had a year like this, it’s been horrible,� said Puffalt. “It will be our obvious priority as soon as we can.� Puffalt said crews will use a cold asphalt mix to
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City of Estevan crews have been out filling pot holes with cold asphalt mix. The mix is a temporary solution until they recieve hot asphlt mix in the spring. repair the worst areas, but cautioned that is only a temporary solution until they can get hot asphalt from their provider.
Although there are a number of areas where potholes have already sprung up, the situation is particularly bad on sections of Sixth
Street, 13th Avenue and Souris Avenue north where a number of large potholes have made life difficult for local drivers. Puffalt admitted that Souris Avenue north is “horrible� and the City will do what it can to provide a decent driving surface this year. “We have a fair amount of money in the budget for pothole patching and it is probably going to stretch what we have to give us a driving surface for the year,� he said. However, a permanent fix will not come until at least 2014 as the City has entered into a cost-sharing agreement with the provincial government on Highway 47 through Estevan and cannot begin rebuilding the road until they get approval.
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Outdoor Camp Held At Boundary Dam
will be refurbishing 40 per cent of the unit and preparing it for integration with the carbon capture plant. Corwyn Bruce, the assistant manager of the clean coal project, said the shutdown is a big step towards the completion of the project which is expected in March of 2014. Bruce added like any other shutdown at Boundary Dam, speed will be of the essence as they hope to have the unit back in operation by
as low as
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Puffalt said as much as they would like to move forward with the work now, doing so would cost the taxpayers of Estevan an estimated $7 million. He did add they are meeting with the Ministry of Highways this week and would be mentioning the sorry state of Highway 47. “We are meeting next week so maybe we’ll take some pictures and say ‘listen guys, we need to do some increased work on this road to get them through,’� Puffalt said. “They are paying for 65 per cent of the north section and 55 per cent of the south. It’s quite a bit of money.� Puffalt added the City is also calculating their snow removal costs to this point and expects to have a report on that in the near future.
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